Years ago I heard from an eyewitness that Tin Ujević—one of the best known Yugoslav bards between the two world wars—once dedicated the following poem to an ageing lady who kept pestering him for it in one of his favorite Belgrade haunts:

Trte mi te nate
Nate mi te trt
Pa kad dođe smrt
Trt

I am afraid that my translation is somewhat too neat:

Bummers me onto you
Onto you me bums
And when death comes
Crumbs

As far as I know, this poem has not been recorded or published anywhere. A pity, too, because it is one of the best poems of its kind in the Serbo-Croatian language. Be that as it may, it is the only one I know by heart.

Addendum (January 5, 2016)

Pray, who was the eyewitness in this story? It was Stevan Bodnarov, a Serbian sculptor and painter of renown who was a close friend of my parents for many years. Born in 1905, he died in 1993, the year my parents moved from Belgrade to Reading, Berkshire. He was a bohemian to boot in his youth, and that is how he became close to Ujević, another bohemian of renown who lived in Belgrade between the two world wars. To the best of my recollection, one of his favorite haunts was the Three Hats, one of the oldest restaurants on Skadarlija, but it could have been the Two Deer just across the street. At any rate, Bodnarov was with Ujević when this felicitous poem was hatched. And he loved to tell about it whenever an opportunity arose. Sadly, I do not remember who the old lady was, but it is safe to bet that she was someone to be reckoned with in her youth.